. >> under normal economic times this say program that is governed by state law and administered by the state. and states pay up to 26 weeks of benefits, six months for people who lost jobs through no fault of their own. but if bad economic times historically congress has authorized additional levels of benefits. this time it is a program called the emergency unemployment compensation system. and there are four different tiers depending on how bad your state unemployment rate is every state gets 14 weeks. nine states get up to 47 a decisional weeks. and the rest are in betweenment but you have to be over 9% to get that additional 47 weeks. >> brown: so it is this program that is now caught up in the fiscal cliff negotiations. >> right. and it's unique this time around. this particular end of the month is a clear-cuttoff time. we have-- . >> brown: in the past it was phased out. >> right. and as harry said in your piece pointed out this is really the worst time of the year for this to happen. so what we need to do now is not just say oh let's just extend them. i think everyone thinks som